Swiss architecture studio Herzog & de Meuron has completed the One Park Drive residential skyscraper at Canary Wharf in London.
Designed to stand out from the surrounding office towers of Canary Wharf, the 58-storey skyscraper has a distinctive cylindrical form.
“Set against the backdrop of the existing Canary Wharf buildings, the circular form of the new tower clearly distinguishes itself from its orthogonal neighbours,” said the studio.
“The form is a statement of the tower’s difference. It is a residential tower adding a new dimension to an area dominated by commercial space.”
The tower, which contains 484 apartments, forms part of developer Canary Wharf Group‘s wider plan to add homes to the predominantly commercial area of east London.
Standing 205 metres tall, it was designed by Herzog & de Meuron to be a landmark structure within the Wood Wharf expansion of Canary Wharf.
“It was very clear that this would need to be a signature building,” said Brian De’ath, director of residential sales at Canary Wharf Group.
“It stands at the head of the dock in a very prominent position and is the first building you see as you cross the bridge into the Wood Wharf development,” he told Dezeen.
The skyscraper was designed to have the appearance of a cylindrical tower, but the majority of the apartments have regular straight edges.
According to the developer, this creates an aesthetic appearance that differentiates the building from the oblong-shaped office towers, but does not impact the quality of the apartments.
“It looks like a round building, but doesn’t have the issues of breaking a round building into apartments,” explained De’ath
“Round buildings are very challenging to occupy as you need specific furniture or end up with lots of odd-shaped dead spaces,” he continued.
“This building was designed from the inside out. It has a superb impact externally, but works internally.”
One Park Drive is divided into four distinct sections, which are clearly visible on its exterior.
“The exterior of the new residential tower is the outward expression of the residential units that constitute the majority of the program,” said the studio.
“Aggregated together, these units form a tower facade that offers a clear distinction between the human scale of the residential development and the unifying mass of the office towers behind it.”
The rounded lowest two floors contain the entrance lobby and cinema space, topped with a gym and swimming pool. Above this are 56 floors of apartments.
The lowest nine floors have rounded floor plates with large apartments that extend out onto curved external balconies.
Above this are 22 floors of smaller studio, one and two-bed apartments with a boxy exterior expression.
The building is topped with 25 floors of large apartments with curved external walls that are twisted to create external balconies.
The interiors of the lower level apartments were completed by London design consultancy Bowler James Brindley with the upper floor units designed by interior studio Goddard Littlefair.
Seven duplex penthouses on the tower’s top two floors are being designed by Herzog & de Meuron and will be completed later this year.
One Park Drive is the first residential skyscraper in the UK designed by Swiss studio Herzog & de Meuron, which was founded by Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron in 1978.
Previous residential projects by the studio include a blocky, 60-storey skyscraper at 56 Leonard Street in New York, the Jade Signature skyscraper in Miami and a plant-covered tower in Beirut.
Photography is by Lee Mawdsley.
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